Maude Callen | SC Hall of Fame

March 12, 2020 - Posted in History by Jackie Johnson

This episode is about Maude Callen (1898 -- 1990), a Nurse-Midwife, who singlehandedly brought health care to rural Pineville, S.C. and the surrounding area of Berkeley County in the early 1920s, continuing to the 1970s. The episode will tell how she delivered some 800 babies, and trained some 400 women as midwives in depressing, treacherous conditions. Many share their memories of Maude Callen and the invaluable medical service she provided as nurse and doctor to thousands in this low income area of South Carolina for generations.

This episode takes a tour of Maude Callen's life. It tells how she was orphaned at six and raised in the home of her uncle, the first black doctor in Tallahassee, Florida. Maude studied nursing at Florida A & M, and Tuskegee Institute. Upon graduating, she answered the call to become a medical missionary in Pineville, S.C. in 1923. This episode includes interviews and footage depicting the challenges she faced and overcame while serving the community, a 400-square mile area, as nurse-midwife, and becoming, for many, their doctor.